Okay. Acts 27. I hope the Lord will bless this.
This is an amazing type of Christ here, this passage of Scripture.
Amazing. Everything in it. Every aspect
of this voyage of the Apostle Paul and these men is a picture
of Christ. Christ is represented here. in
this passage has nearly everything in it. He is Paul, he is the
ship, he is the sea, he is the centurion, he is the land. Christ
is all and in all the story. Now, no type of Christ can be—is
perfect. There's no type in the scriptures
that perfectly portrays Christ in every way, so you can't stretch
it. As my pastor always has said, you can't make every type walk
on four legs. It might touch on two or three,
but everything's not perfect. Christ is infinite in his character
and his person and work. But we are going to touch on
the high points, if the Lord wills it. Now, we were very clearly
and solemnly warned from the first part of this story, up
in verse twenty-one, well, all the way through until verse twenty-one,
we were clearly and solemnly warned not to leave that fair
haven. And I think you saw with me very
clearly how that represents the Church, where Christ is, where
the name of God, where God has chosen to put his name there.
And we were clearly warned not to leave, not to leave, not to
forsake the assembling of ourselves for any reason, ever. God won't
bless it. We saw that. And we will be greatly
tried if not left to ourselves. And I hope you considered what
was said and the Lord give you understanding. And don't let
it be said of you what Paul said to these men here in verse 21.
I'm just bringing this back to your remembrance. Don't let it
be said of you what he said here. Sirs, you should have hearkened
unto me and not have loosed from here and have gained this harm
and this loss. Now may you receive all of that
as it is in truth, the word of God, and not the words of this
man. And, you know, we should seek
the Lord's will in everything. We should seek to be obedient
to his word in all things. Everything from the word of God
should speak to us very clearly. If we had eyes to see, ears to
hear, a heart to To receive it, we'd see very clearly, very clear
instructions for us. We would not be in the dark.
His Word is a lamp under our feet and a light under our path.
It lightens our way. It tells us where to go and how.
We would never be in the dark if we were, if we had eyes to
see and ears to hear and had a heart to receive it. So you
receive this as not being from me, but being from God's Word. All right? And if we don't, we may be like
these men, and we may suffer harm and loss. But you know, sadly, how often
we all do not hearken unto our Lord. Everyone in here is guilty
of this. We do not hearken unto him, and
we do suffer harm and loss. And he admonishes us. We are
admonished every time we read the Scriptures. That's what it's
for, isn't it? given by inspiration of God, profitable for reproof,
for rebuke, correction, admonishment. And we see everywhere that we
should have hearkened unto the Lord. We should have hearkened
unto what he said. And if we had, we might not have
suffered this harm and this loss. If only I had listened. How many
times have you said that? If only I had heeded what was
so clearly written for our sake. But our Lord's mercies are new
every morning, aren't they? And infinite. His mercy and grace
is infinite. And right on the back of our
worst disobedience comes his grace. And right after admonishing
us, he comforts us. That's the goodness of our God.
And we disobey, we're disobedient, we rebel against him. And immediately
afterward, he comforts us. We're admonished, we're convicted.
We're reproved, rebuked, and corrected. Suffer chastening,
but he comforts us. Like David. I was reminded of
David here, when David said, I've sinned against the Lord.
And what a horrible sin it was. But immediately the word came
to him, the Lord put away your sin. David was so convicted,
but then right immediately he was comforted. He had never been
so low, John, never been, I am convinced, never been so low
in his life, but yet he hoped in his God, didn't he? And the
word came to him right on the back of his confession, Lord,
put away your sin. And that's the way it is with
us, isn't it? Verse 22, and Paul did this to
these men, you should have hearkened unto me, nevertheless, verse
22, and now I exhort you, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. There shall be no loss of any
man's life among you, but of the ship. And I say to you, in
spite of our sin, be of good cheer. You shall not perish.
You shall not lose eternal life. He gives it unto you. You shall
never perish, but you will lose this earthly tabernacle someday,
this vessel that you're traveling in. You'll lose it someday. But
not the one that really matters, Christ, the Ark. All right, verses
22 through 24, let's read all these. Now, I exhort you, Paul
said, be of good cheer. There shall not be any loss of
any man's life among you, but of the ship where there stood
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar,
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. I need
to comment on that. That's a picture of Christ, isn't
it? And he says to us, "'Fear not, little flock, it is your
Father's good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. Fear not,
I have given unto you eternal life, and you shall never perish.
Fear not, be of good cheer, O ye of little faith, be of good cheer.'"
Well, why should we? Well, because Christ Book of
verse 21, it said, Paul stood forth in the midst of them. Well,
Christ Emmanuel, God with us, stood forth in the midst of us
and said, Be of good cheer. I've come from the Father. I've
prepared a place for you, and you shall not perish. I give
unto you eternal life. He says, God is with me. God
is with me, whose I am and whom I serve. That's who I came to
serve. and to do something for you.
And God has promised me in a covenant, an eternal covenant ordered in
all things and sure, that he has given me you, that he has
given me you people and you shall not perish. You shall never perish. And God did. He gave Christ to
people and promised Christ to save them all that came to him,
came to God by Christ only. Look at verse 24. He said to Paul, you must appear
before Caesar. And God said to Christ, he must
go to the cross. It's not going to be without
a judgment. Justice must be satisfied. Christ
had to stand before the judgment seat of God for us and satisfy
divine justice on our behalf. To save us, Christ had to suffer
death for us, and Paul suffered death at the hands of Caesar
shortly hereafter. Verse 25, Paul continues and
says, "...wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer," he says it again, "...be of good cheer, I believe
God, and it shall be even as it was told me." He tells them
twice, and he promises them twice. He comforts them twice, doesn't
he? Comfort you, my people. How often
Christ said, I say unto you, comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Be of good cheer, be of good
cheer. Our faithful substitute, our
faithful mediator, our advocate, our high priest who cannot lie,
who cannot lie, he says it shall be even as God told me. I believe
God. I believe God. And he says, it
shall be, even as it was told me. And if it were not so, I
would have told you. Verse 26, how be it, we must
be cast upon a certain island. You're going to take up your
cross and follow me. It's going to be some difficulty.
You must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven.
Tribulation and trial must come, he says, but just cast your care
upon me, for I care for you. cast yourselves on me. He cares
for you." So here, it appeared like a long time passed for these
men. They were out on these troublesome
seas, tossed to and fro, up and down over the waves in this ship. It appeared like it was a long
time for them. It seemed like it, but it wasn't
really. It wasn't really very long. They were drifting around
without tackling. Remember, they'd thrown all the
tackling of the ship They were not controlling that ship. They
were left to the mercy of that ocean. And they were being, they
were drifting on that ocean. And it seemed, what seemed like
a long time to them was only fourteen days. Look at it, verse
twenty-seven. When the fourteenth night was
come, as we were driven up and down in Adria about midnight,
the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country. And
they sounded and found it twenty fathoms. And when they had gone
a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms.
Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast
four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day. And the
fourteenth night was come. It seemed like a long time to
these men, didn't it? And they were getting desperate
by then. And it seems like Christ is tarried for a long time, doesn't
He? It seems like He's been away
a long time, but it hasn't been long at all. It hasn't been long
at all, and it won't be long before He returns. And though
Christ's coming draweth nigh, as He said, and I believe it
is very near. I believe He's even at the door.
The signs point very clearly to Christ's very soon coming. The Scriptures point very clearly
to him coming very soon, I believe. And though his coming draws nigh,
he said in Matthew 24, he said, many will say, and I believe
this is what this represents, that many will say, well, here
he is, he's here. These men thought that they were
about to reach land, they were close. And many will say, he
is here, he is there, but don't believe him. Believe them not,
Christ said. Just cast your faith upon Christ,
be anchored on him, and wait, and wish for the day. It says
they wished for the day, and that's all you can do. You don't
know when he's coming. Don't listen to these fellas that say,
well, it's now, or it's here, it's there, it'll be tomorrow.
That grace preacher just ruined his ministry. That fell out there
in California, you know. He made that prediction in September,
that Christ was up a certain day. Christ was coming. Now nobody's
going to listen to him from here on out. If he'd just preached
the gospel like he should have and left the days, the day of
Christ coming to him like where it is, then he'd been doing his
job, wouldn't he? So don't listen to these fellows.
I think these shipmen represent religious people, too. I think
these fellows were ready to abandon ship Read it on with me. Verses 30 and 31. They thought it was close, so
they were ready to abandon the ship. As the shipmen were about
to flee out of the ship, and they had let down the boat into
the sea under color, or that word means pretense, as though
they would have cast anchors out of the foreship. In other
words, they were going to flee for their lives and leave everybody
stranded on that ship. That's what they were doing,
these shipmen. See, they were soldiers and prisoners
and these fellows that ran the boat. And these fellows were
about to jump in the boat and leave everybody else stranded.
And Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, except these
abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Except these abide
in the ship. You cannot be sent. They were
about to abandon abandon ship. And I think these fellows represent
religious people. Who at times various times have
thought that the. Coming of Christ was. Very soon
the next day or whatever and abandoned everything given up
all hope you you've heard of that haven't you Barbara people
quitting their jobs and and. and so forth, and preparing for
the coming of Christ. Well, you know, what should we
do differently if we thought Christ was coming tomorrow? He
may be. What should we do differently? Anything? Well, if we're not watching now,
we should do something different. We should begin watching. If
we're watching now, then we wouldn't do anything differently than
what we're doing now. Right? But these fellows were about
to abandon ship. And many religious people, they
abandoned this world. And in a great sense, in other
senses, they lived separated lives, you know, under pretense
of love to Christ. They're not. They're just showing
a will worship, as Paul said. It's only those who truly have
faith in Christ that are going to be saved. It's not the most
separated man. It's not those that abandon this
world, per se, and live a separated monastic life, right? Isn't that
monasticism? To leave this world and go off
and live in a commune or a cave or whatever by yourself or with
your family or whatever? It's only those that are in Christ
by faith that will be saved. And one may live the most straightest
sect, like Paul said, the most straightest sect of the Pharisees,
the most separated life, the most straightest sect of the
Dunkards, and live a separated life and not be in Christ by
faith, he's going to drown. He's going to perish. be without
Christ and perish, live the most separated life. Except you abide
in Christ by faith, you're going to perish. And except your fellowship
be with the Father and with his Son and with God's people in
Christ, no matter how separated you are, you're going to perish.
Right? And I believe, you know, it is
a temptation to want to take our families and move to the
hills. But that's not what we're called
upon to do, is it? What are we called in the Scripture?
Salt. What's salt good for? It savors
things, right? If you take us out of the world,
there's no more salt, is there? Well, if we take ourselves and
our families and so forth and live a separated life, a secluded life, you've taken
the salt out of the earth, right? We're a city that's supposed
to be set on a hill. Christ didn't pray that we're to be taken out
of the world, did he? Keep us from it. Didn't tell
us to take every cell all we have and move away. Live separated
lives. It says live by faith in him.
And keep yourselves unspotted from the world, right? Not separated
from it, but unspotted from it. And it is a temptation, but that's
not what it's all about. This thing is living by faith
and Christ as a man, a normal, ordinary man and woman. All right,
verses 32 through 34. Then the soldiers, when they
saw these fellows were going to jump in the boat and take
off, they cut off the ropes of that boat and let her fall off
into the ocean. And while the day was coming
on, Paul besought them all to take me, This day is the fourteenth
day that you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken
nothing. Wherefore, I pray you, take some
meat. This is for your health. For
there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you,
and no thing continue." It says here that the day was coming
on, and the coming of Christ is, it draweth nigh, And, you
know, Peter said, over in 2 Peter 3, he said, Scoffer's walk will
be saying in the last days, will all things continue as they once
were? Where's the promise of his coming? Well, he's coming.
The promise is right here. And though all things do continue
as they once were, he is coming, Christ is coming, and though
he tarry, though he tarry like these men, though it's been a
while, he will come. He will come. And though you
continue to suffer and endure trials and all, it's not going
to be too much longer now. Take some meat. Take some gospel
refreshment. Take some comfort. Nourish your
souls with this, that it won't be long, and all these troubles
and these trials and tribulations are for your health. Take this
meat, OK, and chew on that for a while, Joe. Whatever happened
is for your health, and not a hair of your head. shall fall. Your spiritual head, that is. Your spiritual head shall fall.
They're all numbered. One old writer said, if the hairs
are numbered, you know the heads are. It's the heads he's talking
about, and everything concerning those. What he's talking about
is something that seems so insignificant. But something that seems so insignificant
is numbered by God Almighty. Every one of them. And not a
hair like the birds in the forest falls to the ground. Not even
a hair. But what God didn't ordain that. You have a God like that?
You most certainly do. Take some meat and be comforted
with that. Nourish your souls with that
thought. It's all working together for your good. Every bit of it's
working together. for your good, not a hair shall
fall from the head of any of you. Every last one of you who
are in the ship shall be saved." And then were they all of good
cheer, and they also took some meat. The gospel sure cheers the faint,
doesn't it, in the midst of troubled seas. These fellows, this was
the best meat and bread they'd ever had. They hadn't tasted
it for a while, and in the midst of these troubled seas, tossed
to and fro, it sure did cheer their faint hearts, didn't it?
And how the gospel cheers us. You've been a couple of days
on the ocean, haven't you, John? out there in the midst of the
sea. And you come in here, and I hope this will be a real source
of comfort for you, the gospel. Verses 37 and 8. And we were
in all, in the ship, two hundred, three score, or two hundred and
seventy-six souls. And when they had eaten enough,
they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. Everybody
in the ship, after they'd eaten enough, they cast out the wheat
into the sea. And all you who are in Christ,
all you who believe in Christ, The Scriptures tells us to be
content with such things as we have. We need to be like Esau. It's when Jacob, remember when
Jacob came with all those gifts, sent all those gifts to Esau,
remember what he said? It's enough. I've got enough. And we need to be like that.
We need to be content with such things as we have, after we've
eaten enough, having food and rain, the Scriptures say, doesn't
it? Be content, be content with such
things as we have. And he also tells us to cast
our bread upon the water, doesn't he? To take what we need and
cast our bread upon the water. He says you'll see it after many
days. You'll see it after many days. And it'll weigh you down
if you don't. It'll weigh you down with care.
That's the reason he spells cast the wheat out. They were sinking. So they cast everything out.
And we need to cast our hopes and our future on Christ the
Lord, on him. Verse 39, And when it was day,
they knew not the land. They didn't recognize the land.
They knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with
a shore into the which they were minded, if it were possible,
to thrust in a ship. And when they had taken up the
anchors, They committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the
rudder-bands, and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind, and
made toward the shore. So when it was day, it says they
didn't know the land, per se, but they saw some signs of hope.
They saw signs of hope, so they cut all ties, and they committed
themselves to the sea. There are over a few pages of
Romans. 13, and they made their way toward shore. They cut these
ties, they cut the anchors, that which they trusted in, and made
their way toward the shore, seeing signs of their salvation. Romans 13, look at this, verse
12, how this ties in with that. Romans 13, verse 12, says, The
night is far spent, back there it said when it was day, The
day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us cast off. Let us lay aside
every weight that does so easily beset us and all of our trust
in carnal things and cast all our care on Him. Commit ourselves
to Christ. commit our homes and our families
and our lives to Christ. It says they committed themselves
to the sea. And Christ is an ocean of fullness,
of love and mercy and grace and providence to all of his people.
He's an ocean to the people, wide and vast, unfathomable,
unsearchable in his riches, in his riches. And it says they
loosed the rudders and horsed the mainsail. What's that? Well,
if you cast all your care upon Christ and realize something
of his fullness that filleth all in all, your loosened tongues
will be employed. It will loosen your tongue, and
you'll lift up your mainsail to God in praise. Well, that's
the heart, right? You lift up your heart to God
in praise, and you'll make your way toward shore. I told you
Christ was everything, didn't I? Christ is the shore. when I'm safe on that beautiful
shore. Christ is that shore, coming to Christ. To whom coming?
Christ is our safe haven. Verse forty-one. It says, and
this is good, look at it. Are you with me? I'm just reading God's Word,
just going down through here verse by verse, looking at it.
I hope you are. Verse forty-one. This is beautiful. It says, they made their way
towards shore and falling into a place where two seas met. This
is a place, a creek, where two seas converged into one place,
and they ran the ship aground. The ship ran aground on this
place. The foreparts stuck fast on the
ground and remained unmovable. But the hindered part, the back
part, was broken with the balance of the wave. What do you see
in that? What do you see in that? We're falling on a place where
two seas met. If you fall on Christ by faith, you'll see that
mercy and truth are met together. That's the place where righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. And you'll be grounded and settled
on the truth, unmovable, unshakable, in your faith in him. Isn't that
beautiful? In Christ, Christ is the forerunner. He's the forepart of this ship.
He's the forerunner who went in within the veil. And in Christ,
you'll be safe. Outside of Christ, you'll be
broken to pieces. Broken to pieces. Verse 42. Well, the soldier's
council, after they saw that the boat was broken up, the soldier's
council was to kill the prisoners. lest any of them should swim
out and escape. And the law of God, the handwriting
of ordinances against us, the law of God says kill us. It cries
out for our death, doesn't it? But somebody speaks up on our
behalf. Verse 43, the centurion willing
to save Paul. And the Holy Spirit is our centurion,
our guardian. Is he not sent by God Almighty?
Because God's not willing that any of us should perish. Not
willing that we should perish. He's going to save us. He's going
to save this Paul. He's going to save that John.
He's going to save that Jeanette and a few others. Not willing
that any should perish in the Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God tells us, commands us to come to Christ. Seek or swim,
I'm going to Him. Commanded them that they should
swim. Cast themselves into the sea and get to land. Cast yourselves
on Christ by faith, and you'll get to land, Henry. You'll get
to land. We say, I can't swim. Don't need
to. Look at verse 44. Verse 44, it says, And the rest,
some on boards, some on broken pieces of ship. You know, all of this had to do with Christ,
the ship. Christ is that ark. But all of
it were pieces of ship. Some of them had big boards.
And some of them had a little bit of piece broken. Some had
two by twelve, some had two by four. But they all had a hold
of that ship, didn't they? That's how they got there. Well,
little faith, big faith. Any faith in Christ is faith
enough to save you, right? And the Scripture says here,
it says they all, it came to pass. And all this will come
to pass. Being tossed to and fro on these
tempestuous seas will come to pass. And you will escape all,
all who trust Christ, safe to land. And though this earthly
tabernacle, the Scripture says, be dissolved because of Christ,
by faith in Christ, like I said, little faith or great faith,
doesn't matter. It's because of Christ, Christ our Ark. We
will escape, we will escape and land safe on that beautiful shore. All right, Sherry, come up and
we'll sing this. Here's a very fitting hymn to
sing after that. Number 303. Jesus, Savior, pilot me over
life's tempestuous city. Unknown ways before me roll,
hiding rocks and treacherous shoal. Chart and compass come
from thee." That's the Word of God, isn't it? Jesus, my Savior,
pilot me. And he will. He's the captain
of our salvation. All right, let's thank.